The Invasion of Shadows
by Prospit Monarch
Summary: We should have listened, we should have stopped and left Them alone, but instead we challenged Them and awakened a Beast we could never hope to defeat..


There is nothing left I can do – the end has come for us, come to have his promise fulfilled. Soon, too soon, there will be nothing left of our existence; all with be destroyed or taken or whatever those foul things do with the items of our world. I can only hope that this somehow survives their relentless assault on our homes and that others, if there are others, find this and take heed to what I am about to say.

First let me explain where I have discovered this disturbing knowledge that our King has ignored and thus brought our destruction; I am the Son of the Head of the Guard for castle Stoneholm, skilled in the art of wizardry I have taken to enchanting the Knights weapons in order for them to be more affective towards the likes of Creepers and the Undead. I am revered and sometimes feared by all for my skills in the unknown, but none of this matters, not anymore.

I should have seen it sooner.

I could have stopped this invasion.

But blast my prideful soul down to the depths of the Nether for I scoffed at the reports of that lost Mining Company and the legends that beast of shadows had mauled them. Even after seeing the note rest in my hands and feeling the delicate paper I brushed off the idea that there was something out there – something we had no knowledge of. The very idea sounded preposterous to me! All had been found! All was known!

But I am here to tell you that we were wrong – horribly, horribly wrong.

As things went back to normal after the event I started hearing the mutterings of the Knights as they came to see me for their weapons – they would always speak of superstitions of these apparent 'Endermen' and fantasize their fears until they would be looking over their shoulder as if waiting for death to be standing there. Many times I played along with them, humored them if you will, about the creatures; many times giving them details I had created to paint a vivid picture within their heads.

After fives months of this they all believed the Endermen resembled a Creeper made of shadows that slithered through the dark and morphed out of the darkest corners of their rooms only to creep up upon them and rip them to shreds.

Our guesses were not far off from the real thing, only the actual creature had a far more creative method of killing.

And it had brought back-up.

…

I can sense them.

They have broken through the gates – dear Notch – they broke through the gates!

I will have to leave things out and I pray they will not have been of importance to the survival of all that are left.

Two months ago the King had sent out a scouting partly to investigate a mysterious structure that a farmer had reported along the border. The farmer, who had a rather good reputation with the Castle folk, had sent a report in describing something that I must guess would have looked like a pillar rising above the clouds and into the Realms of Mojang and, by my guess, this pillar was made out of expertly cut glass. The farmer indicated that the structure had seemingly appeared overnight.

Two weeks after the party was sent out we received a letter back asking for enchanted pickaxes, shovels, and swords. The letter was brief and formal but the last bit intrigued the King for it spoke of a 'great discovery like this generation has never seen'. We sent a letter back asking for more information.

Three weeks passed before our curiosities were calmed and minds settled – the Team had indeed found something and, after quite a lot of digging into the archives, this structure has never been recording in our history. Whoever, or whatever, had build these 'Strongholds' as they were called, was not in any of our records.

As the new note was read aloud to a court of the highest members of Stoneholm there were claps of great enthusiasm at the discoveries made by the team which ranged from strange steel poles woven into blocks to 'creatures that hid within stone' and many, many more. The greatest applause, however, came from that of a small scuffle the men had encountered with the fabled Endermen.

Even as the accounts were retold I did not believe their tales and simply ignored them, but from what I unwillingly caught it sounded as if these creatures of shadows that they had all feared and dreaded were still just creatures.

And all creatures could be killed.

Even as the note continued plans were already being put into effect to assemble Endermen Hunters and parties to figure out where these Nether Spawn originated from.

As the note was finished the courier pulled out a strange round object that instantly aroused my curiosity – such cylindrical objects were rare and this one seemed to also be emitting a high amount of magic. I instantly called for possession of the object and I was not subject to negation, for even among the Elite I had a reputation.

As the court adjourned to much drinking and cheering I slipped away with the object in hand, but not before I had questioned the courier of where such an object had originated from. He simply replied it was that of an Endermen – the eye to be exact. With a scoff I turned away from the man and slithered away to my chambers where I began to experiment of the object.

I cannot go into detail of my experiments, although I deeply wish I could for the sole purpose of giving knowledge to another Generation, but I discovered many things from the object but only one would lead to where my Kingdom know lays.

The Endermen Hunters had done a thorough job, too thorough as it seems, but at the time they provided me with enough Ender Eyes to experiment with every ingredient I had at my disposal. One of such items is what we call Blaze Powder – a grainy substance that is made from crushing a Blaze Rod taken from a fiery being within the Nether itself. I mixed the powder with a simple cauldron and the reaction was almost instantaneous – the Eye puffed out an odd purple mist before changing color from a deep green to that of a lighter shade.

I promptly went to the King to tell him of such a discovery, for the Eye had reacted with nothing except for the Powder. As I entered his Throne Room a rugged man pushed passed me, stopping short when he saw the green object pulsating purple in my hands. He grabbed my shoulder and spun me around before spluttering out a question as to where I had received the object. I brushed his hand off and told him it was of no business of his and began to stalk off when he spoke again, stopping me where I was. He identified himself as a member of the Team who had found the Stronghold and he had just finished reporting of a strange formation they had found placed over lava. He further informed me that this strange formation had odd holes on the top of them, circular in shape and just deep enough to fit a small object. Within one of these was an object he stated that looked exactly like the one I was now holding…

I sent him away with a chest full of the Eye of Ender and told him to fill in the empty spaces and report back with the results immediately.

I can only guess what happened – what horror I must have sent the man through. Whatever we awakened was not happy with our efforts for discovery and I feel we must pay for that mistake with our lives.

…

I..I can hear them.

Those creatures…those Endermen..

I can hear their whispering filling the towers halls and drowning out all sounds of screams from outside. Their raspy breath…I can feel it on my back as if they are here in the room with me…!

But if I am to finish…I must not look.

I must tell you of one more creature, One with the power to demolish mountains.

They were first spotted early today on the horizon, so far away they were but specks in the sky and many could not even see them approach unless they truly looked. As the hours passed the specks grew and grew, so much that many thought that dark clouds were approaching, not flying death.

As the sun had began to set was when the first signs of trouble had risen – the approaching 'cloud' was emitting a purple glow and it was moving, slowly at first, but the entire thing was shifting at every moment.

That was when the Endermen were spotted.

The approaching purple cloud of flying beasts were so numerous that they blocked out the light of the setting sun, casting a dark shadow that grew and grew as it raced towards the castle at impossible speeds. Within this shadow that raced across the ground was an army of thousands that must have left devastation in their wake, for these shadows were Endermen and from the sounds that accompany me as I write they must have been enraged.

I ordered the Obsidian gates of Stoneholm to be shut. In the face of the reality that I was wrong I acted rashly and did not correctly prepare for an invasion on this scale – if I had thought this through we might have lived and continued to hang on…

But that time is gone.

I made a mistake and all of Stoneholm is paying the price..

Even if I had Enchanted the weapons and Kingdom..

I do not know if they were have had any effect on the raging cloud of purple flying demons that accompanied the Endermen, which I, again, never believed to have existed.

They are bigger than Ghasts and louder than TNT, their roar filling the sky with a splitting terror that sends all fleeing in sheer fear. They are as black as shadows and as vicious as the Endermen they resemble, for they are the beasts of Fairy Tales and Tales of Older Days when Notch once walked Minecraftia.

Dragons..

No. They are not normal dragons, they seem far too violent, far to different form this world to be called such a name. They..

They are the End Dragons, the Dragons who ended the mighty Kingdom of Stoneholm in a single night of terror.

The Ender Dragons….

May Notch help us all.


End file.
